Is Any Body There?
"Body without Body" is an exhibition of contemporary art by israeli artists at Georg-Kolbe Museum in Berlin. It "offers a refreshingly new view of the body in art and society, whilst exploring Jewish identity."
"Body without Body", November 27th - Feburary 19th 2012, Tuesday - Sunday: 10am - 6pm
Human traces
As well as triggering your sweet tooth, Danny Yahav-Brown's nibbled chocolate bar ("My Angel") gave me the feeling that someone was there before me - a human body. Although you cannot touch the body, you feel its presence. But whose? This theme is continued in Ariel Reichman’s “I am not here”, whose ironic words on a single piece of paper on the floor recall an Invisible Man. Like the mysterious chocoholic, this could be anyone and therefore represents everyone, uniting people through absence of physical being. Our understanding of the body thus changes from the traditional visual form we perceive to the conceptual.
How much for the nipple kipa?
Down a squeaky staircase an array of everyday objects used by the body come are transformed: belts, hair clips, forks and kipas. Yet the “Drei Kippas” by Gil Yefman, two adorned with nipples and one with an eye, are not exactly everyday objects – you would look like a bit of a tit if you wore that to the synagogue!
Gil Yefman's Medusa. Photo: Frances Cragg, courtesy of Georg Kolbe Museum
While some of these objects may appear comic, others bring up controversial issues relating to the Jewish body and its persecution throughout history. Garda Getzow’s “Tel” primarily consists of a pile of tights, an accessory used every day by women everywhere to keep the body warm. The common item of clothing however creates a mountain of used, ripped and sad looking tights no longer serving their purpose and recalls the piles of clothes and objects stripped from the Jews at concentration camps like Auschwitz. A haunting image of the bodies to whom the tights once belonged.
Sexual feeling
Ironically, the physical theme of this exhibition has taken an emotional embodiment. It has whisked my feelings up and down between laughter, sadness, confusion and clarity, twirling me around on a ride through controversial issues such as life, death and religion. The next taboo to be experienced on this rollercoaster: Sex!
The body is a symbol and even product of sex; it is no wonder then that the artists explore sexuality and gender in their works. “Medusa” by Gil Yefman demonstrates the boundaries placed on the body though sexuality. For the big, woollen multicoloured, monstrosity of lactating breasts hanging from the ceiling I can think of no better way to describe the visual appearance of this piece but calling it ugly. However, the saggy, oozing, garish wool provoked a reaction in me that and I think it was supposed to! The piece comments on transsexuality which is still a taboo around the world, and depicts the prison that the body can create which raises the question: Why does physical appearance define a person?
I struggled to find meaning in the mop propped up and covered with a towel until I read the description. It turned out I was looking at a morning glory made of everyday objects. This sexuality without a body made me think: Is sexuality as much about the body as we think? In these art installations sex exists without body. Body exists without body.
This was quite a lot to get my head around; abstract art can be quite a challenge to your personal perspectives on the world. After all that conceptualisation my body needed something tangible so I absorbed what I had just seen at the cosy “Cafe K” next door - no misinterpretation possible: good coffee!